does the right side stay open with a great room beyond? do you want an eat in dinette table or island with seating within the space? Is the traffic flow in and out the garage entrance thru the kitchen to great room quite major?

Hi, Kitclueless. Free ideas are the specialty here. If you post a drawing showing how your kitchen relates to the entire main floor, and even outside if germane, it'll get the ideas flowing, a bit like stoking a fire with information.

Great questions herbflavor and I should have addressed them!

-On the right side (out of the drawing) there is a kitchen table. Then, that space, opens up into the family room. So the space shown above does not have to have a table, but seating at the island could be nice (for interactions with my kids while they are doing homework or eating breakfast)

-The garage is used only by our family coming and going. Everyone else comes through the front door. It is not a major traffic flow area.

Thanks Rosie-
Here something I did quickly before running out the door-hope this helps!

what would the Jew be from the windows? Can you spare the upper cab space?

If you have a budget, keep in mind sometimes it can be costly to do the plumbing or electrical work to move appliance locations.

Excuse me?!?!?

marcolo wrote: Excuse me?!?!?

My guess is auto-fill from a device with a tiny touch-screen keyboard. View from the windows. I am guessing you already know that. :)

the first re-creation within this space [if it were my project] would be a drop zone by the garage door. Hooks/cubbies/small closet/combo with pantry-whatever....a designated area before kitchen starts for entry way functions in a multiple person household. Then assess whether the sides of L between dining room and kitchen,as well,between kitchen and family room would stay/be altered / or completely removed.A strong case probably exists to take out the side of L between kitchen/family room.....are walls separating the zones? Once you have the basic outline/perimeter generally figured-how much storage space do you need? this space looks like it would take a few different configurations of layout-especially if the walls between dining/family room are removed/altered. Is there a style to the home?

Oh for goodness sakes! I hate typing on my ipad.

Yes, I meant to ask what view you would have if you put in windows, not who your neighbors are.

I think we all knew what you meant, mtrdredux, but it was pretty funny. Gotta love technology!

When DH was in 2nd grade, I was helping her type an essay on flora and fauna of the Gobi desert. Apparently, there is something called the "sauxal bush." Microsoft Word spellchecker asked if we meant "sexual." Uh, no.

Back to the question at hand. I'm definitely not one of the layout experts, but off the top of my head, I'd put the sink on the window wall (because I like a window over my sink) the fridge on the wall that can't be moved, and the cooktop on the wall opposite the fridge/perpendicular to the sink, as long as there's a way to vent outside from there.

How do you all cross paths? What functions need to be separated?

I agree with the drop zone idea, and I'd suggest something to sit on to take off/put on boots and shoes, if you have the room.

Mtnrdredux-the view would be my side yard, a street and then the neighbors house across the street. I was thinking of it for light and watching the kids in the yard.

Herbflavor-Thanks! We were thinking about carving out some space under the stairs for a drop zone, but aren't really sure how to achieve that yet.
There is a wall now separating the kitchen from the dining room. There are a lot of pipes running through that wall so it will stay but we can rearrange the cabinetry on it. There is no wall next to the kitchen table, just a pennisula and there is a wall enclosing the stairs.
As for style, I don't know. Everything in the house is "builder grade" - snap in place floors (with deep dirt collecting grooves), "brass" fixtures, etc. The house was built in 1995 and is part of a collection of all very similar houses. Is center hall colonial considered a style? (sorry for my ignorance)

Ginny20- The sink is currently in the right L and the stovetop in the left L and the microwave is right in the little walkway by the dining room. Heating up lunch for my kids in the microwave, which I do a lot, blocks the access to the pots and pans, utensils, and dinnerware-perhaps we should just move the microwave and not remodel? :)

Center hall colonial is about the last style I would've guessed from your sketches. Oh well. Because of the zigzag /traffic jams in kitchen you mentionned i would consider: keep the 16 and 11 foot walls for an L and house your frig/sink /range along those 2 walls....take out the other L and place a centered island which will split the traffic flow back and forth from family room and garage. It depends if you are okay with an island as opposed to table/chairs..that means, can you use the dining area for day to day along with island then? it appears plenty wide[13 ft?] for island plus seating and still have walking on either side. The other L with 16 and 11 feet is substantial,but appliances do eat into it....the island of a good size without sink or cooktop will be a great spot-storage and multiple uses. I think you have to get graph paper and sketch out some basic plans and see what happens
when you position things-your sketches aren't enough right now to really tell.

When someone is standing at the microwave, does it block walk-through traffic? Moving it would definitely help. Are there other traffic issues? Before I remodeled, if I was loading the dishwasher, you couldn't open the fridge or even walk into the kitchen to get to the sink. Is something like that happening in the morning to cause traffic jams? If it's only the MW, then you don't have to remodel until you want a new kitchen. MW should be easy to move.

herbflavor has a good point, though, about use of space. An island instead of the peninsula would be more functional if you can eliminate the kitchen table. Eating dinner in the DR on a daily basis does make better use of an underused space. You can still have casual seating for lunch and breakfast at the island. You could also put the microwave somewhere in the island where it will not get in anyone's way. The extra storage the island would provide would allow you to cut out the last few feet of cabs before the door to the garage, and you could tuck cubbies or hooks and a little bench there for a drop area.

Thanks Herbflavor, I'll work on some to scale sketches this weekend

I'll have to think of a better pace for the micro Ginny20, maybe I'll draw a more detailed pic of kit and post separately.

Thanks again